Exterior of Opus College of Business building in winter

Looking Back at 2019

It's been a breakout year for Opus College of Business! We had a lot to celebrate in 2019. This collection highlights a few top milestones of the year in the areas of principled leadership, business of health care and entrepreneurship.

Group of Opus undergraduate business students

A group shot of GHR fellows at St Thomas

Students from the gbeta program sitting around table

Aerial shot of US Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis

Opus students in the Health Care program talking around a table

Opus College of Business executive coaches

Opus students participating in the Business Plan Competition

Stelar staff wearing virtual reality goggles

New MBA Cohort

In 2019 we welcomed our first Fall cohort of Online MBA students. They completed the opening residency in February that included the launch of the Leading Self and Others course.

More than 95% of students hail from Minnesota and 63% identify as female. Positions range from Senior Analyst to CFO to Development Scientist.

New Business Curriculum

With the new undergraduate business curriculum on campus, students are able to access business courses earlier at St. Thomas and build on their interdisciplinary interests with more flexibility than ever.

GHR Fellows

We welcomed our first cohort of GHR Fellows to campus this Fall. The GHR Fellows Program is the largest endowed scholarship at the University of St. Thomas, funded by the largest scholarship gift for any college or university in the history of Minnesota.

This highly competitive program is designed to attract future business leaders who embody the mission of the university and model the values of GHR Foundation: innovative, ethically minded, community engaged and globally aware changemakers who create enduring value for society.

Start Up Support

The Schulze School of Entrepreneurship and nationally ranked gener8tor joined forces to help students and alumni launch new enterprises. The partnership provided a free seven-week accelerator for early-stage companies with local roots.

Teams connected with experts to refine their business model, meet mentors, strategize growth, gain customer traction and pitch investors. The partnership was funded by the Richard M. Shulze Family Foundation.

Understanding Ethics

The Center for Ethics in Practice at Opus launched a new website that provides practical guidance to tackle ethical issues.

The Business Ethics Resource Center powered by U.S. Bank (BERC) help owners integrate ethical practices into their businesses. BERC offers solutions to ethics and compliance challenges commonly experienced by small and medium-sized businesses in all industries.

UnitedHealth Group Cohort

UnitedHealth Group will be delivering a custom Health Care MBA to a fifth cohort of high potential leaders within their organization. UnitedHealth Group is a Fortune 5 company with headquarters in Minnesota.

The Health Care MBA program is designed for working health care professionals who want to advance their careers.

Executive Education

In 2019 Executive Education launched four new programs: Decision Making and Execution; Solving problems with Design Thinking, Creating Clarity with Visual Facilitation, Project Management for the Accidental Project Manager.

Thousands of students have gained confidence and excelled in their careers through non-credit, professional development Executive Education courses at St. Thomas.

Top Ranking

For what’s believed to be the first time, St. Thomas’ Schulze School of Entrepreneurship has been ranked by the Princeton Review on its Top 50 Entrepreneurship Undergraduate programs.

Emerging Tech

This year we introduced EmTech St. Thomas, an event series to prepare St. Thomas students for technological changes in the workplace; to address current business challenges; identify new business opportunities; and build new business models.

The initiative covers everything from virtual reality therapy for patients with Alzheimer’s, to discussions on the ethics of AI smart home technology.